Thanksgiving weekend, France-style

Last week, while you were all enjoying a traditional Thanksgiving meal…I was, too! The assistants in Valence hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for all of the American assistants (and some British, Mexican, and Spanish folks) that included everything from turkey to pumpkin pie. The only thing lacking was the canned cranberry sauce, which I plan on making up for at Christmas (right, Lindz?!). The food was delicious, the company was great, and the wine lasted us through the night. Patrick used my camera to get some great pictures, so check them out at the link to the right…they tell the stories better that I possibly could.

Friday morning, I left Valence with Molly and Patrick and we made our way to Geneva, where Grace met up with us. The four of us proceeded to have a great 4-day weekend in the city of the UN (European branch), Red Cross, fondue, banking and chocolate. Geneva’s a great city – you can walk down one street and hear four languages and see some of the most chic, cosmopolitan people in the world. You can also pay 4.50 CHF (Swiss Francs, close enough to a US dollar) for a cup of Starbucks drip coffee that you actually end up buying, just because it’s been way too long since you’ve seen, much less drank, Starbuck’s coffee…and, you’ve been dreaming about the red, “It only happens once a year” Christmas cups. Yeah, the city’s expensive. But, luckily Patrick was smart enough to find us an “apartment-hotel” that was about a 20 minute tram ride from the city center for about 15 euros/person/night. We basically outsmarted Geneva with this one…we paid very little for a great place to stay, didn’t even have to search for the place as it was directly in front of us when we got off the tram, and didn’t end up having to pay for many meals in town since we could cook at home for dinner and bring picnics with us for lunch. We did, however, enjoy one fantastic fondue dinner on Saturday night, followed by beers at the bar across the street from our apartment: total dive bar, but we enjoyed it! The people were great there, as was the beer and the prices.

Now, back to "reality". I've actually described this week to multiple people as "busy," which is a little sad when you work 12 hours. But, I am babysitting for a professor this weekend, so I have to go to dinner at the woman's house on Thursday night so that I can meet her daughter before I babysit her (apparently they don't trust strangers as easily here as we do in the States). I'm also going to Chambéry tomorrow night for one of Grace's roommate's birthdays, then back on Thursday morning to teach. Friday, I'm heading to Lyon with Patrick and Molly for the Fête des Lumières, which is a huge festival where they light the city of Lyon for Christmas -- people put candles in their windows and everything, which sounds just magical. Sunday, I believe that there is another wine tasting in Valence, so I'll probably be going to that...I'm starting to consider wine tastings like school lessons; I learn a lot at them!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to you all...I'm excited to be back on American soil (and even see some of you) in less than 3 weeks!